By Logan Brandon • Sports Editor • 

Grizzly assistant coach compiles records for wrestling room

McMinnville’s assistant wrestling coach Jeremy Wilson is a man on a mission. For the past year, Wilson has devoted his time to creating a comprehensive list of every Mac wrestler who achieved state, league or college success on the mat.

He’s diligently parsed the OSAA archives for all relevant state information, then used Mac High yearbooks to fill in any gaps. Using a Google spreadsheet, Wilson compiled all his data into one convenient location.

“The OSAA, the state stuff, is pretty solid. Most of it is archived, but it’s the league data that’s been hard to track down. I’ve had to look at every yearbook in the library to fill in my notes on each wrestler,” said Wilson.

The assistant coach also reached out to former coaches like H.D. Weddel to gain additional information.

Asked about his motivation for the project, Wilson replied, “I’ve always loved wrestling history – I’ve been around the sport all my life. The big reason is we have this nice, new wrestling room that is pretty empty right now. The walls are blank and I’d really like to get some history up on those walls.”

Wilson said adding historical perspective to the wrestling room will give current student-athletes more opportunities to set goals and aim for their own personal success.

“We have a pretty rich wrestling history here and I think it should be displayed,” he added.

During his search, Wilson has uncovered several interesting Mac wrestling stories.

From 1968 to 1970, Mac alumni Jim Vandehey wrestled for Oregon State University. He achieved all-America status with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Tournament in 1969. Vandehey also earned fifth at the same tournament in 1970.

“When I found Jim’s college accomplishments, I had to go back and check my high school state placers list,” said Wilson. “And what I found was he placed first in our district one year, but never placed at state. He was at the top of the college wrestling world, but couldn’t place at the Oregon state tournament.”

Wilson also mentioned Jeff Stuebing, who made the Canadian Olympic wrestling team in the 1980s, as another crucial piece of history he unearthed during his search.

“It’s this kind of stuff that keeps me sucked in,” said Wilson. “I’m blown away by the amount of information I’ve discovered that most people in the community have forgotten about.”

Though Wilson has found incredible success with his one-man project, he’s asking community members to help him complete the archive.

He’s made his records available to the public at – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M460AQULB1r12bzEehhfcuUAk13nHk89XeFA_QvNjRY/edit?ts=60be4cc8#gid=972798743

Wilson wants anyone who has notes or corrections for his archives to email him at JWilson@msd.k12.or.us .

Comments

@@pager@@
Web Design and Web Development by Buildable